Even by the standards of Chinese game M&A activity, the news that all the companies in the consortium planning to take Shanda Games (NASDAQ:GAME) private have changed demonstrates remarkable flexibility.

To recap the situation, in January 2014, a consortium of investors - including controlling shareholder Shanda Interactive - put together a proposal to buy back Shanda's shares, which valued the company at $1.9 billion, or $6.90 per share.

They were later joined by fellow Chinese publisher Perfect World which invested $100 million into the deal.

New balls

Now, however, these five companies - Shanda Interactive, Primavera Capital, Perfect World, FV Investment Holdings and CAP IV Engagement - have been replaced by a fresh set of investors.

They are Orient Finance Holdings, Shanghai Buyout Fund (aka Haitong) and Ningxia Zhongyincashmere International Group, which is a textiles company.

Orient Finance has bought 23 percent of Shanda Games shares, Haitong has 20 percent, while Ningxia gains 15 percent.

Apart from this 'minor detail', apparently the proposal to take Shanda Games private remains unchanged.

For its part, Shanda Games has never commented other than to say it's considering the deal.

Significantly, when the move to take it private was announced, its share price jumped from around $42.5 to over $6. Currently it's at $6.28, a decline of 2.3 percent on the news.